Apple exec: Merging iOS and OS X would be a ‘waste of energy’

In an interview with Macworld, Apple’s Phil Schiller, Bud Tribble and Craig Federighi said that the company has no intention to merge iOS and OS X, as some people see it as the natural thing to do with these operating systems in the future.

“We don’t waste time thinking, ‘But it should be one [interface]!’ How do you make these [operating systems] merge together?’” Schiller, the company’s senior vice president of worldwide marketing, said. “What a waste of energy that would be.”

Federighi further added that Apple won’t merge the two OSes “for the sake of convergence,” labeling such an action as a nongoal for the company, even though the exec happens to be the vice president of software engineering at Apple and oversees its mobile and desktop efforts. Ultimately, he said, Apple is trying to offer its customers a smooth experience when moving from one kind of device to the other.

“You don’t want to see the Mac became less good at being a Mac because someone tried to turn it into iOS,” Federighi added. “At the same time, you don’t want to feel like iOS was designed by [one] company, and Mac was designed by [a different] company, and they’re different for reasons of lack of common vision. We have a common sense of aesthetics, a common set of principles that drive us, and we’re building the best products we can for their unique purposes. So you’ll see them be the same where that makes sense, and you’ll see them be different in those things that are critical to their essence.”

The arrival of the iPod, iPhone and iPad further shaped the evolution of the Mac, the execs revealed, with the last two devices “turbocharging” the Mac development, according to Tribble, currently Apple’s vice president of software technology and a former member of the original Macintosh team. But the company will not phase out its iconic computers anytime soon. The Mac, which is celebrating its 30th birthday this week, has a clear future ahead, as Apple sees users requiring different devices to meet certain needs.

“There is a super-important role [for the Mac] that will always be,” Schiller told the publication. “We don’t see an end to that role. There’s a role for the Mac as far as our eye can see. A role in conjunction with smartphones and tablets, that allows you to make the choice of what you want to use. Our view is, the Mac keeps going forever, because the differences it brings are really valuable.”